Body of missing Pierce County mom found in woods, wrapped in tarp

TACOMA -- The body of Nicole White, 28, was found over the weekend in the woods near Kapowsin in Pierce County.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department said White's body was found Saturday near Timberline Forest Camp 1 Road East, but news of the discovery was not announced until Monday morning.

Search dogs had led investigators to the woods, the sheriff's department said, and her body was found wrapped in a tarp.

Cause of death was not immediately disclosed.



White, a mother of two boys, was last seen the night of June 6 when she was seen at Jeepers bar in Spanaway with a man who had also been a customer there before, detectives and the bar's owner said.  She was reported missing a day later by her mother.

“Sunday morning, (she) didn’t show up for work, didn’t come to get her boys, which is very unlike her, she would either call if she was going to be late, text, something,” said her cousin Dana Johnson.

White’s red Dodge Neon was discovered Monday, June 8, over a ravine in the 26000 block of 70th Avenue East near Graham. Search dogs on the scene led detectives to a nearby pond. However, no sign of White was found until this weekend.

The man who was on a date with White the night she was last seen, Jonathan Harris, 29, of Graham, is a person of interest in her disappearance, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department has said. He is in federal custody on an unrelated weapons charge.

Pierce County Sheriff's Department detective Ed Troyer said he believes deputies will present a case to prosecutors sometime this week involving Harris.